A transgender person was hospitalized after an early morning shooting.
Someone shot the victim in the neck in the 2300 block of Savannah Street SE about 2 a.m., police said.
The victim went to the District 7 police station and then was taken to a nearby hospital in serious but stable condition. The shooting victim was expected to survive, and police have identified a suspect in that case and expect to make an arrest, authorities said.
It’s at least the third time a transgender person has been the target of a shooting or attempted shooting in the District in the past two months. On July 21, 23-year-old Lashay McLean was shot to death on the 6100 block of Dix Street in Northeast, after two men approached to ask a question, then pulled a gun and fired at McLean.
Just seven days later, another transgender person was shot at on the same street, just one block away. Again a man approached to ask a question and fired a shot, but it missed, and the victim escaped injury.
All of the attacks, including the one Monday morning, have happened near the D.C.-Prince George’s County line. Nothing indicated that this shooting is connected to the others.
On Aug. 29, an off-duty police officer was accused of shooting up a car carrying five passengers, some of whom were transgender, in northwest D.C.
Members of the transgender community told News4's Pat Collins that transgender people are targeted by robbers because they are known to carry cash and it's perceived that police don't investigate crimes involving transgender victims as seriously as other crimes, so the robbers believe they have a better chance of getting away. Police said it's their duty to treat all crimes equally.
Officials sought at a news conference Monday to dispel assertions that officers aren't being responsive to the concerns of gays, lesbians and transgender people or that detectives aren't aggressively working to solve crimes against them.
“As an agency, we would not tolerate that from our members,” Assistant Police Chief Peter Newsham said.
Transgender people are “victims of crime on all-too frequent basis” in the city and police have met recently with members of the community, Newsham said.
Crimes against transgender people attracted national attention last spring when two women were recorded attacking a transgender woman inside a McDonald's restaurant in Rosedale, Md. The video went viral after being posted online. One defendant is scheduled to be sentenced Tuesday in Baltimore County Circuit Court after pleading guilty to first-degree assault and a hate crime.
